U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 50,000 people in July, the highest monthly total of 
Donald Trump's second term, new government data show. The July tally of 49,571 was a 15% jump from 43,021 arrests in June and a 70% increase from 29,241 in February, based on data ICE provided to the University of California, Berkeley's Deportation Data Project and analyzed by the Associated Press. The data were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
How have arrest numbers moved during the term? Arrests hovered a little over 8,000 in the month before Trump entered office, a figure made up largely of immigrants transferred from city or state jails and prisons and turned over to ICE, the Korea Times reported. The numbers climbed during his first year as the administration loosened restrictions on where and whom ICE could arrest and infused the agency with billions of dollars, reaching more than 40,177 by December. After two fatal shootings in Minnesota in January sparked protests and an uproar from Democratic lawmakers, arrests began to fall to nearly 30,000 in February and remained stagnant for months before jumping in June, PBS NewsHour reported.
Has the enforcement approach changed? Earlier this year the administration shifted from high-profile operations in large American cities, which sparked a public outcry, to arrests that have drawn less attention but have nonetheless been disruptive. The July spike shows the mass deportation agenda has kept advancing despite that shift, the Korea Times reported. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin pledged in his confirmation hearing earlier this year to keep ICE out of the headlines, PBS NewsHour reported, but his tenure has been marred by a number of fatal shootings of immigrants in encounters with ICE officers. The figures show Mullin has not shifted the agency from Trump's vision for mass deportations.
Where were the arrests concentrated? Texas and Florida accounted for nearly 20,000 of the July arrests, a sign of how important those states have become to the administration's deportation agenda, PBS NewsHour reported. Both have leaned heavily on cooperation agreements with ICE called 287g agreements, which allow local and state law enforcement to essentially operate as arms of federal immigration enforcement. The spike also comes as the agency, infused with billions of dollars by Congress last summer, has hired 12,000 new deportation officers and investigative agents.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
